Online stores allow users to purchase a variety of content items from the comfort of their computing device. For example, online media stores allow users to purchase a variety of electronic content items such as music, movies, books, etc., which a user can access from their computing device(s). While users can easily purchase these items online, sharing these items with family members can be difficult. Oftentimes, access to purchased content items is restricted to the user account that purchased the content item. Therefore, a user that purchased content item cannot share the content item with other members of their family.
To alleviate this problem, many families share a single user account to make content item purchases. While sharing a single user account allows multiple family members to access purchased content items, this technique also provides several problems. For example, by sharing a single user account, purchases made by each family member affect the user profile associated with the purchasing user account. Therefore, a father that allows his children to purchase songs using the father's user account may receive recommendations based on the purchases made by the children because the system cannot discern between purchases made by the father and purchases made by his children.
Another problem with sharing a single user account is that the purchased content items are associated with the user account used to purchase the content items and cannot be transferred to another user account. This can be problematic when a family member wants to create a separate user account. For example, a child leaving for college may wish to have their own user account, separate from the user account shared with the child's father. The child has no way to transfer the child's content items purchased with the father's user account. Accordingly, there is a need for an improved method of sharing purchased content items between family members.